Special Report

The Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE), a category system for software weakness and vulnerability, is now in use to provide a common vocabulary for source-code analysis tools for those developing mission-critical embedded systems. Some distinct groupings of CWE items – such as those that are associated with general coding practices – are focused on security-specific parts of [...]

A few trends are emerging in military aircraft avionics – including a continued push toward large touch-screen displays, as well as a migration to multicore processing, open architectures, and a new focus on improving cyber resilience. Open architecture designs are a standard requirement these days for military aircraft platforms undergoing avionics upgrades and tech refreshes [...]

Two major challenges confront developers of military radar-processing systems. The first challenge is that modern multiband radar sensors produce huge amounts of data that need to be brought into the system's digital-processing stage as accurately and rapidly as possible in order to generate actionable data for the warfighter. The second challenge in this arena is the rapid rate of change that missions must respond to, as adversaries continually morph and evolve their tactics and develop more sophisticated technologies.

As adversaries develop missile technology to attack the U.S. in ways that can challenge our missile defense - such as conventional and nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles, sea-launched land-attack missiles, hypersonic weapons, and space-based missiles that orbit Earth - it's critical to have radar systems capable of providing early detection.

Constellations of small satellites (smallsats) promise to bring tangible benefits to national security space (NSS) programs, where there is a critical need to minimize construction and deployment costs. Multiple smallsats, defined as satellites with launch mass of 500 Kg or less, can be built quickly and cheaply and then deployed rapidly and responsively to implement a network of NSS assets that address today's ever-changing threat landscape.

Raytheon is sending a one-of-a-kind small satellite to low Earth orbit to do a proof of concept of a prototype design - originally developed for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) - to provide useful imagery directly to military users in the field.

Military intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) applications continue to make demands on signal-processing designers for more performance, better thermal management, and reduced size, weight, and power (SWaP). These systems - as they move closer to the sensor on various platforms - are also starting to enable artificial intelligence (AI) solutions at the edge.

The good news: Newer-generation processing devices offer hugely boosted capability for military applications such as airborne data processing, shipboard electronics, or ground vehicle systems. The bad news: Newer-generation processing devices offer much more capability. Is this really both good news and bad news? In a word, yes.

More Virginia-class nuclear attack submarines enter "Silent Service" in 2018. While the subs are getting cool sonar and processing upgrades, any embedded systems need to be secured to protect against SATCOM vulnerabilities.